By Carla Crowder and Carla Crowder,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | November 3, 1997

EL PRADO, N.M. -- Construction on Karin Payne's dream home has stopped.No more hammers pounding dirt into tires. It's been weeks since an empty Bud Light can was screwed into a mud wall.Payne's dream home is a desert Earthship, crafted from recycled materials with power only from the sun and running water only from the clouds. "My goal was to have zero impact on the exploitation of the earth or of people," says Payne, 39, a refugee from West Coast yuppiedom. A baseball cap shields her eyes from the sun and her ponytail from the wind as she sits cross-legged in the dirt looking over blueprints.

By Meredith Cohn and Meredith Cohn,meredith.cohn@baltsun.com | September 28, 2009

Tens of thousands of people will converge on the city in October to watch or participate in the Baltimore Running Festival. But if all goes according to plan, they won't leave much of a footprint. Organizers of the marathon and the day's other races will recycle cups, hand out reduced-plastic bottles, compost food and waste, collect discarded shoes, and use alternative-energy cars. They'll hand out race shirts made from 100 percent recycled materials. And they'll plant 100 trees along the race course.

When Chuck Fox and his family decided it was time to remodel their Crownsville home, they had a lot of questions about what to use and how much it would all cost, but one thing was for sure - the only color on the palette would be green. An environmentally friendly design - often referred to as "green building" - was a given for Fox, former director of the state Department of Natural Resources and currently senior policy adviser at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. That meant optimal use of the sun, recycled supplies and new materials that had the least negative impact on the environment.

If there is a common theme linking the finalists for the Janet & Walker Sondheim Prize, it may be that the methods of creating art can be as important as the art itself. "This year is a very process-oriented, installation-based type of show," says Gary Kachadourian, visual arts coordinator with the Baltimore Office for Promotion in the Arts, which created the prize to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Artscape in 2006. "It is a good mix of people, representing a good mix of ideas." Those ideas include finding the artistic potential in dirt, photocopied books, recycled materials, barren parking lots, a polar bear's heart rate and even vintage cartoon character Mr. Magoo.

If we want to be recycling activists, the most effective "simple thing" we can do is push our local governments to buy supplies made from recycled materials.Think about it: You can collect all the bottles and newspapers you want, but if no manufacturers use them in their products, your efforts are wasted.So we have to create a market for recycled products. Each of us can and should buy them whenever possible. But each of us only has limited purchasing power.Government, on the other hand, has real economic clout.

Lake Shore site yields tons of trashWhen county workers hauled 112 tons of trash out of the future Lake Shore Athletic Complex last month, nearly 80 percent of it went to the Millersville Landfill.The rest was recycled. Almost 13 tons of scrap metal were plucked from the woods and scrub that cover the 127-acre site, and sent to United Iron and Metal in South Baltimore, county spokeswoman Louise Hayman said.Another 13 tons of tires were sent to Joseph Smith and Sons Inc., a Prince George's County recycler, Ms. Hayman said.

Since the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, new homes have become 100 percent more energy efficient and construction has become more conservation friendly, according to a new publication from the National Association of Home Builders. The report, "Building Greener, Building Better: The Quiet Revolution," reviews the materials, products and processes that the housing industry now uses to provide "greener" housing choices. Some examples: Different wood products have reduced the need for plywood from older, mature trees by 60 percent.

Edward J. Gossett Jr. is on a mission to make us all more environmentally correct. He's selling T-shirts made partly from recycled plastic, unbleached paper towels and cleaning liquids that won't pollute.Operation Green Co. in Westminster is stocked and ready to supply the region's demand for products made from recycled materials."I'm now being referred to as 'Hey, you're the recycling guy,' " said Mr. Gossett, 24, who opened the business a month ago in a former plumbing company office on Pennsylvania Avenue near Vince's Seafood.

By Dennis O'Brien and Dennis O'Brien,Baltimore County Bureau of The Sun | November 27, 1991

A Baltimore County Council committee asked the county executive yesterday to look into weekly curbside recycling, but county administrators said it may be too expensive and will require further study before they reach any decisions.County Executive Roger B. Hayden unveiled a recycling plan Nov. 4 that was criticized for not going far enough to promote or mandate recycling.The plan calls for expanding curbside collection of mixed paper to 55,000 homes by next July and offering curbside collection of mixed paper and lawn waste to half of the county's 282,000 homes by 1994.

Baltimore County is preparing to modify the lighting in its largest public building to save 50 percent on its electric bill under a program being offered by the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.Once the County Courts Building in Towson is converted, officials plan to convert the county office building and the huge new public safety building as well.In addition, the County Council is set to approve a bill Monday night that would require county government to buy supplies made of recycled materials whenever possible, including at least 40 percent of the paper it uses.

Piled on two rolling carts: four panel doors, two cases of gray ceramic tile, two bags of grout, one white pedestal sink, still boxed, and a pail of mortar. The doors need some work. The tiles are in perfect shape: unused. The sink is in the original box. Grand total: $156, less than half the retail price. The castoffs of some homeowner or builder have become the treasures of another at the Loading Dock, a nonprofit Baltimore warehouse that sells reusable building goods and builder's seconds.

Amy Milauskas and Carol Tortella want to do more for the environment than hang up public-service announcements and oversee traditional recycling campaigns. The two Wilde Lake Middle School teachers were among nearly 40 Howard County educators who attended a training session offered this week by the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education on how schools can join its Green School Recognition program. Ten Howard County schools are members of the program, which encourages schools to adopt more environmentally friendly practices and infuse environmental content into the curriculum.

By Karen Nitkin and Karen Nitkin,special to the sun | February 4, 2007

For Gillian Engelbrecht, 11, a fifth-grader at Jeffers Hill Elementary School, one of the best parts about creating a mosaic for the school has been working on a team. Instead of working on one section from concept to completion, the students share responsibility. "They made us work on different things," she said, as she scraped grout between spaces on a near-completed section of the mosaic last week. Like other students involved in the project, Gillian came up with an idea for a section, but then worked to place bits of broken pottery, shells and other objects on a design created by someone else.

For Michelangelo and Bernini, marble inspired masterpiece sculptures. But for three Carroll County high school students, tin boxes, a vinyl record, hundreds of paper clips and glue guns did the trick. Those materials and other objects scrounged up and scouted for in basements and friends' junk piles were among the winning entries in a recent state sculpture competition hosted by the Maryland Department of the Environment in Baltimore. The "Rethink Recycling" contest, now in its fifth year, serves as one way the department recognizes America Recycles Day - Nov. 15 - a national campaign that encourages Americans to recycle and buy recycled products.

Harford County's proposed solid waste management plan calls for four rubble collection sites, including the reopening of a controversial landfill in the fast-growing Abingdon area. There is already growing opposition, among residents and County Council members, to a plan to use the Spencer sand and gravel pit off Abingdon Road as a landfill for construction and demolition debris. "That's not the place for a landfill," said Council President Robert S. Wagner. "The population has grown significantly in that area since the site was closed in the early 1990s."

When Chuck Fox and his family decided it was time to remodel their Crownsville home, they had a lot of questions about what to use and how much it would all cost, but one thing was for sure - the only color on the palette would be green. An environmentally friendly design - often referred to as "green building" - was a given for Fox, former director of the state Department of Natural Resources and currently senior policy adviser at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. That meant optimal use of the sun, recycled supplies and new materials that had the least negative impact on the environment.

By Dennis O'Brien and Dennis O'Brien,Baltimore County Bureau of The Sun | December 3, 1991

The Baltimore County Council approved a recycling plan last night that will mean curbside recycling by July for 55,000 homes, a pilot program to test curbside recycling countywide and an NTC advisory committee to oversee recycling efforts.The plan calls for expanding curbside collection of mixed paper to 21,000 homes by April.The county will expand collection to 55,000 homes by July and offer curbside collection of mixed paper and lawn waste to 155,000 homes -- more than half of the county's 282,000 homes -- by 1994.

In Baltimore CountyRestaurant's roof, kitchen destroyed in two-alarm fireRANDALLSTOWN -- Employees and patrons escaped injury yesterday afternoon when a two-alarm fire at a restaurant destroyed the kitchen and roof.Employees reported that the fire began about 1: 35 p.m. in an oven at Hunan Taste in the 8500 block of Liberty Road, and spread when the sprinkler system didn't work, said county Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Hubbard. Flames went to the roof, forcing evacuation of the kitchen and dining room, he said.

"I wanted to bring to Washington the concept of moderna, fine contemporary Italian furniture produced by companies with enduring reputations," says Peruvian-born architect and interior designer Deborah Kalkstein. With the opening of Contemporaria, her sleek and elegant home furnishings store, she has succeeded. Contemporaria offers the best of modern, showcasing wares by virtuoso design firms such as Minotti, Pierantonio Bonacina, Halifax, Paola Lenti, Casa Milano and Album, as well as Woodnotes paper rugs from Finland, lighting by FAD of France and Foscarini of Italy, and bedding by Matteo.

Since the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, new homes have become 100 percent more energy efficient and construction has become more conservation friendly, according to a new publication from the National Association of Home Builders. The report, "Building Greener, Building Better: The Quiet Revolution," reviews the materials, products and processes that the housing industry now uses to provide "greener" housing choices. Some examples: Different wood products have reduced the need for plywood from older, mature trees by 60 percent.